Description

Note: This is an updated SDG originally given in 2015 coordinated by Marilyn Slater and Bob Moore-Stewart.

The immune system stands between us and a world of attackers who would otherwise kill us in short order. What is it? – and how does it do its job? All multicellular organisms such as sponges (Porifera) exhibit immune responses and mechanisms for discriminating self from non-self. A long history of host-pathogen co-evolution (from sponges to humans) has brought about a variety of diseases and immune strategies.

This SDG will focus on immunity in vertebrates with emphasis on mammals and the human immune response to disease. The selected core book by Lauren Sompayrac (5th edition, 2016) provides an excellent introduction for the non-scientist and non-professional healthcare professional PLATO member.

How do immune cells distinguish between self and non-self? Complexity and effectiveness are hallmarks of the immune system. It is able to identify and dispatch most pathogens and yet spare our own tissues. It exhibits both innate and adaptive immunity, allowing immune cells to respond immediately to foreign invaders and then follow up the defense with fine-tuned warriors who search out specific pathogens in order to kill and devour them. The fine-tuning is regulated by a complex series of chemical signals. The detailed mechanisms of the immune response are only now becoming understood through state-of-the-art techniques in biochemistry and molecular biology.

Diseases have many causes -- viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, mutations, allergens – to name some of the most common. We will study the way in which the immune system provides surveillance and fights back in various diseases. Vaccines offer a way to train the immune system to fight disease more effectively. In some cases, the immune system has harmful, even fatal, effects. In autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis, immune cells attack the body that gave rise to them. The greatest challenge to organ transplantation is attacks by the recipient’s immune system. We will explore emerging revelations about cancer immunotherapy, the human genome and microbiome, progress in AIDS therapy, and autoimmune treatments that impact millions of lives.

This SDG will enlighten and enable an enhanced understanding of the extraordinary immune system as "an elegant defense."